THE AMERICAN WOODCOCK. 431 



bill; occiput with three transverse bands of black, alternating with three others rf 

 pale yellowish-rufous ; upper parts of body variegated with pale-ashy, rufous, oi 

 yellowish-red of various shades, and black; large space in front, and throat, reddish- 

 ashy ; line from the eye to the bill, and another on the rieck below the eye, brownish- 

 black; entire under parts pale-rufous, brighter on the sides and under wing coverts; 

 quills ashj'-brown; tail feathers brownish-black, tipped with ashy, darker on the 

 upper surface, paler and frequently white on the under; bill light-brown, paler and 

 yellowish at base ; legs pale-reddish ; iris brown. 



Total length, about eleven inches; wing, five and a quarter; tail, two and a 

 quarter; bill, two and a quarter; tarsus, one and a quarter inclies. 



Hub. — Eastern North America. 



N 



O sportsman will ever forget his first "Woodcock brought 

 to bag, for of all our game birds none affords more 

 real gratification by its possession. In its habits it is so ca- 

 pricious, and its presence in a given locality can be counted 

 upon with so little certainty, that a day's success with it gives 

 the hunter a degree of satisfaction that is derived from the 

 pursuit of hardly any other of our game birds. 



The Woodcock is the jewel of our woods, and a genuine 

 sportsman would think nothing of a twenty-mile tramp in 

 the worst of cover if there were a reasonable prospect of 

 meeting this delectable bird in any numbers. I have often 

 in my enthusiasm for field sports compared, by their pecu- 

 liarities and habits, the various game birds with our game 

 fish, and the only fish that seems to be worthy of naming 

 in connection with the Woodcock is the brook trout ; not 

 the little fingerling that one takes in the mountain brooks 

 and rivulets, but the monarch of the Rangelev Lakes ; a six- 

 pounder, it is true, but nevertheless a genuine brook trout. 

 The degree of satisfaction that I have felt in conquering 

 with an eight-ounce rod one of these magnificent fish after 

 a half hour's struggle is equalled only by the gratification I 

 have experienced in consigning to my game-bag a vigorous, 

 quick-fiying autumn Woodcock. 



" There is something wondrously like reason and intuitive 

 mathematics in the knowledge which Woodcocks possess of 

 the difference between straight lines and angles, and in the 

 adroit feats which they employ wherewith to dodge and 



